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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2002)
Football midterm filled with craziness Wendell Barnhouse Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) Eight weeks into the 2002 col lege football season and it’s time for some halftime adjustments and analysis. Here’s what we know at the halfway point: — Defending national champion Miami remains undefeated (though barely). — Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops is per haps the best in-game coach cur rently walking the sidelines. — Texas is all hat and no cattle (still). — Tyrone Willingham should have been Notre Dame’s first choice as its coach, not its second. — Iowa State quarterback Seneca Wallace is the leading Heisman Tro phy candidate. And it’s not because all the other possibilities are aca demically ineligible. r — There are eight undefeated teams and four with one loss that still have national-championship hopes. — The spread (offense) is dead. Five of the 10 undefeated teams rank in the top 25 in rushing yards per game. But only Miami, 22nd nation ally in passing, is in the top 25 in passing offenses. Running the foot ball still wins. — The Bowl Championship Series rankings, due to make their debut Monday, will again provide plenty of controversy and debate. — Traditional powers Florida, Florida State, Nebraska and Ten nessee all have two or more losses and are out of the national-title pic ture. — “One thing that’s been particu larly interesting or surprising about this season has been the number of big-name schools that have strug gled,” ESPN college football analyst Trev Alberts said. “And even though with one loss, Texas is not out of the national championship picture, I’d have to include the Longhorns on that list, because once again they didn’t beat Oklahoma.” — Nine of the teams ranked in The Associated Press preseason top 25 are not ranked this week. There are 10 undefeated teams remaining in Division I-A. What was expected has become the unexpected. Nebraska’s streak of being ranked in 348 consecutive polls ended two weeks before Florida’s streak of being ranked in 209 consecutive polls ended. — “Notre Dame and Air Force have been a little bit of a surprise,” Alberts said, in a super-sized under statement. — Notre Dame has turned defense and timely turnovers into an art EUGENE JhuWcdtm HARDWARE • Hardware • Electrical • Plumbing • Paint • Lawn & Garden • Housewares 014421 342-5191 2825 Willamette - Eugene, Oregon form. Air Force, which runs a tricky option-oriented offense, is a chal lenge for every foe. The seventh ranked Irish (6-0) and the 18th ranked Falcons (6-0) meet Saturday night in Colorado Springs. That was n’t a game pegged as a must-see back in August. A Notre Dame-Air Force show down of undefeated teams isn’t the only shocking development. Thus far, there have been more twists and turns than a pretzel factory. Consider: — A missed field goal by Florida State kept Miami undefeated. — A controversial call by the of ficials accounted for Iowa State’s only loss. — Michigan kicked a game-win ning field goal to beat Washington af ter the Huskies were penalized for having 12 men on the field. — Monsoons, courtesy of tropi cal storms, helped Florida upset Tennessee and Louisville upset Florida State. — Disparaging comments by a ri val’s former coach bred up Georgia, helping the Bulldogs win at Alabama. — The one constant has been Mi ami. The defending national cham pion has been atop The Associated Press rankings for a record 19 con secutive weeks. The Hurricanes have won 28 consecutive games. Be fore Saturday’s 28-27 victory over Florida State, Miami was winning by an average of 32 points per game. — Florida State, though, may have provided a blueprint for beat ing the champs. Florida State ran the ball on 52 of 72 plays, gaining 296 yards. — “We just didn’t tackle very well,” Miami senior defensive tack le Matt Walters said. “We were there to make plays. They weren’t blowing us off the line. We were missing tackles.” — A Hurricanes-Sooners game would match the past two national champions, a coach who grew up in Oklahoma (Larry Coker) and broth ers against brother — Oklahoma’s Bob and Mike Stoops (defensive co ordinator) against Mark Stoops, Mi ami’s defensive backs coach. (c) 2002, Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. Phil Velasquez Chicago Tribune (KRT) Tyrone Willingham, the former head coach of the Stanford Cardinal, has led the Notre Dame to a 6-0 record this year, but the Irish face undefeated Air Force on Saturday. Undefeated Falcons hope to disarm Irish Tim Mimick The Gazette (Colorado Spring, Colo.) (KRT) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — College football coaches promise re cruits games against top-10 teams. Playing against highly-ranked Notre Dame makes it only better. Air Force will get its chance to knock off the Irish on Saturday night at Falcon Stadium in an ESPN telecast. Notre Dame (6-0), winner of 11 consensus national championships, holds the No. 7 ranking in both polls. Air Force (6-0) moved up to No. 18 in the Associated Press poll and No. 15 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll Sunday. “With Notre Dame coming in, it’s going to be bigger than life,” Falcon back Joel Buelow said. Air Force set up this matchup of unbeatens by dispatching defending Mountain West Conference champi on Brigham Young 52-9 Saturday night at Falcon Stadium. Air Force trailed 3-0, then scored the next 45 points to avenge a 63-33 blitzing at BYU a year ago. Air Force has been determined to get back to its winning ways after a 6-6 season in 2001. In the second game this season Air Force knocked off New Mexico, which had won a school-record three in a row against the Falcons. In the fourth game, the Falcons rallied to edge Utah, which beat Air Force to the Mountain West’s postseason berths last sea son, although Air Force could gloat over a season-ending 38-37 win over Utah. In the past three seasons, Air Force has gone to one bowl and hasn’t claimed a Mountain West title. By beating BYU, Air Force put itself at 3-0 in the conference with three teams picked ahead of it in the pre season standings already defeated. As for a postseason game, Air Force can make its unprecedented Bowl Championship Series state ment by defeating Notre Dame. The first BCS poll of the year will be re leased Oct. 21. Even if it wins the Mountain West, Air Force won't be assured a BCS berth to one of the elite Fiesta, Rose, Sugar or Orange % bowls. Air Force needs a top-six fin ish in the BCS standings to accom plish such a feat. (c) 2002, The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
